Win streak isn't creating extra pressure for Texans

When South Plains College won a national championship last season, players and coaches couldn’t afford to think seriously about it until March.

Because the Texans went undefeated, they carried over a long winning streak that now stands at 42 games. To keep the streak alive, it has to be on their minds every day.

Or so you would think.

“Yanick (Moreira) made a joke about it during one game, just in passing,” SPC coach Steve Green said this week, “but I don’t know that they talk about it, because we’ve only got four guys back.”

Top-ranked South Plains, 6-0 this season after going 36-0 last season, will try to add to the winning streak this weekend at the Collin County Thanksgiving Classic in Plano. The Texans face two Oklahoma schools, Murray State College at 4 p.m. today and Carl Albert State at 4 p.m. Saturday.

The South Plains women, off to a 6-1 start, are in the same tournament, matched against Tyler at noon today and Collin County at 2 p.m. Saturday.

Elsewhere on the small-college scene, the Wayland Baptist men get a rare shot — an NAIA team facing an NCAA Division I opponent — when the Pioneers challenge Ivy League member Columbia at 8 p.m. CST today. That’s part of the Hilltop Challenge hosted by the University of San Francisco.

Wayland is 4-3. Columbia (3-1) beat Villanova 75-57 on Tuesday for its first win over a Big East team since 1985.

South Plains has known nothing but wins since the start of last season.

“I just look at it as we’ve won six. This year’s not really a part of last year,” Green said. “And we should have won those six games that we played. We’re better than those teams that we’ve played so far.

“When the real test is going to come is when we get in our league.”

During the 42-game winning streak, only eight opponents have stayed within single digits of the Texans. One of the close calls came last time out when Temple College took South Plains to overtime on Nov. 13 before losing 77-74.

In the late stages of that game, Green said, the Texans took a bad shot for a potential game winner and left Leopards shooters open.

“We were lucky to get out of there,” he said. “We just did some really, really silly things at the end of the game, that kind of stuff that ends streaks for you.”

Moreira, the 6-foot-10 center who signed with SMU during the early signing period, is averaging 19.2 points and 9.2 rebounds. The sophomore from Angola is one of six Texans ranging from 6-8 to 6-10 who make the inside game as strong as last year’s championship team’s.

“We have a lot of depth inside, a lot of depth,” Green said. “We have six post guys, any one of which could have started on any other team I’ve had here.”

Of the six, Moreira and Texas-Arlington signee Anthony Walker are the only holdovers, and 6-10 DePaul signee Forrest Robinson from Eastland might be the most high-profile newcomer. But Ryan Martin from London, Michael Karena from New Zealand and Jamaal Samuel from New Orleans are other big bodies helping SPC outrebound opponents by a whopping 15 per game.

The biggest question at the beginning of the season was who to pair with Devonte Smith, the returning starter at point guard. Kendahl Amerson, a 6-3 freshman from Detroit, Mich., is the team’s second-leading scorer at 11.7 per game. Amerson and Roderick Lawrence, a 6-4 freshman from Orlando, Fla., are both shooting better than 52 percent from 3-point range, helping the Texans as a team convert 41 percent of their 3s.

“I didn’t expect that,” Green said. “I’m still not sold on it yet, that that’s going to be there.”